Call to order
An Editorial meeting of the Board of Unity–Struggle–Unity was held at 3-6-23 on Discord. It began at 9:30 PM EST and was presided over by J. Katsefoter with the same as secretary.
Attendees
Voting members in attendance: Mazal, J. Katsfoter
Guests in attendance: Cde. Soff
Members not in attendance: Sylveste (medical emergency)
Proposed Agenda
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Running minutes
- Discussed resigning Sylveste since he has not yet tendered his resignation, but it’s a moot point because there’s no one to fill the seat. Need interview data from him
- Discussed Zach using the candidacy period as a kind of training period – what can we do for him? We could schedule a workshop with him or brainstorm with him. He was interested in writing on transphobic laws.
- Discussed prospectus and struggle guide — J.K. says focus on struggle guide rather than Prospectus. Mazal will wait for Sylveste to resume work on Errors.
- Demcent writing is going well. Less tightly focused, but that’s OK. It’s a series of inquiries into different aspects of demcent that are poorly understood or widely misunderstood.
Action Items
- J. Katsfoter –
- Contact Sylveste about sending over the transcript or write-up of the interviews and about resignation
- Draft subscription graphics to submit to GVSB
- Continue working on Prospectus
- Mazal –
- Look over struggle guide
- Progress report on Demcent article
Adjournment
Mazal moved that the meeting be adjourned, and this was agreed upon at 10:02 PM EST.
Attached Report: Mazal Progress
As per the action items listed on the minutes record of the EB meeting of 6 March 2023, I have prepared the following brief report on my progress in writing my current article on democratic centralism as practised in the Communist movement in the U.S. and Canada.
The article is currently around 4,700 words long. I anticipate that it is approximately two-thirds complete, but it is difficult to estimate, because I cannot know how much room I’ll need for each “section” before writing it, and I believe there are still a few more sections left, as well as an introduction and conclusion that I haven’t yet written. I’m worried that the article is too long and rambly. If GVSB members tend to agree, then once a first draft is finished, I will attempt to prune it.
I also worry that the article suffers from a lack of concreteness. As we’ve agreed at prior EB meetings and in the Discord server, a “call-out” article (a polemic) will not be the most beneficial presentation. We don’t want to discourage, say, on-the-fence CPUSA and PSL members from reading this; we want them to read it and “independently” come to the conclusion — the inevitable conclusion — that their sects are not practising democratic centralism. The problem, however, is that without pointing to concrete examples, the article feels a bit “abstract” — and I worry this detracts from its practical usefulness. I’ll continue writing the article in this manner until I’ve finished a first draft. If GVSB members tend to share my concern about abstractness, we can then see about “concretising” it.
I will attempt to have the first draft complete by Saturday of this week, so that it can be reviewed by GVSB members and opened to criticism ahead of our next EB meeting.